When was the first double stack magazine created? Do you think it would have been incorporated into the 1911 design?

No, he probably would have made a whole new gun, maybe incorporate some other 'new' technologies into it like a mag safety, and maybe try a hinged trigger instead of a stirrup trigger.  Heck, he may have even switched it to a different caliber like 9mm.  

It'd be a high powered handgun for sure.

Thanks for the reply. I understand he already incorporated it into the Hi-power. What I want to know is if the double stack idea was around when he designed the 1911...would he have used it?

What you did there. I see it.

Indeed

What was the Army asking for at the time?

I'd also say it probably wouldn't have been incorporated as doublestack 1911s tend to be pretty wide for the average shooter.  IIRC, people were smaller back then too, compounding the problem.  When we look at the modifications to the 1911 when it became the 1911A1, many of those were made to make it more comfortable and easier to shoot.  A doublestack mag would have run counter to that.

I rather doubt it.  When he developed the gun, it was simply a BUG.  If you are in a gun fight during war times and you have to use a pistol then something has gone wrong and it has to work.  Double stack mags are more prone to failure.  Having twice as much ammo that you might not be able to use is counter productive.  I know that there are a lot of highly tuned race guns with double stack mags that work like a champ but the government won't spend that kind of money on a handgun.  So, probably not.

Thanks for the info guys

High powered, Nice

I wish Browning had been able to use the 1911 platform for the GP35 project instead of being in a position where he couldn't make use of the design.   I think we would have seen a much better design than what the High Power ended up being.

Not a chance.

 

Double stack magazines were well known in rifles in Browning's day.  Not sure of the very first, but the 1893 Mausers were common, and used a double stack magazine.

The 1896 Broomhandle also used a double stack magazine.  It was more like the rifle magazines than the pistol magazines we know today.  It was fixed to the receiver, and fed from the top, even using strippers like a rifle.

The Savage .32 used a double stack magazine.  There was another .32, a foreign one, whose name is all I can remember, it was called "Ne Plus Ultra".  



It would have been had the army requested it.  JMB was very good about incorporating requested features into his designs.  As already mentioned, the army would not have wanted a double stack magazine .45 pistol at this time.

To recap, JMB could have designed the M1911 as a double stack magazine pistol, if he had been requested to do so.  There were previous designs to show that the concept would work.  Even today, many people can not handle a double stack .45, so the army wisely didn't request one.